Author Description

Excerpt stinct from the numbered pages, he had found the following entry: "June 1st. At last I have found it. It seems good after twenty-three years of disappointment to be able to say that I have found a good lead and that there is a sure enough vein here. I thought I was on the right trail when I was in the middle of Thorn's Gulch and I found pretty soon that I had struck it just right. I followed the lead four days and every day I was more convinced that I had found something at last worth while. The assay will be great. Soon I shall have all the money I need, and my poor old sister will no longer be broken hearted for me. I was determined to find a mine and now I have one that is worth all my long working and waiting." "Any name signed to that?" inquired Zeke quickly when Fred ceased reading. "No." "Then you can't be sure it's Simon's." "Yes, you can, if the book belonged to him, as you think it did. It's plain this Simon, if that was his name, was an educated man."